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Jim Erickson demonstrating free and clean climbing on his route Blind Faith (5.10b) in Eldorado Canyon in 2008. Blind Faith was the hardest of a slew of routes in Eldorado Canyon that Erickson established in 1972. He walked up to this route that had never been climbed, with no partner and no rope -- and he made its first ascent.
(Photo by Matt Kelley)

Before 1970, rock climbing was more akin to construction work than gymnastics, to which climbing is often compared today.

Basically, the climber's goal was to get to the top of something by any means. Back then, that often meant hammering a piton (a small metal wedge) into the rock, standing in stirrups attached to the piton, pounding another piton in higher and repeating the process.

This laborious style of ascent is called "aid climbing," and as destructive and unappealing as it sounds, it was the most practical way for climbers to scale sheer walls.

That is, until an 18-year-old from Wisconsin named Jim Erickson wandered into Eldorado Canyon one day in 1967.

Along with his pitons, Erickson utilized a new kind of "clean" protection -- nuts and hexes -- that could be placed in the rock without a hammer. Thus equipped, Erickson not only repeated many of Eldorado Canyon's most challenging climbs, he made an exponential leap in standards by "free climbing" them. Rather than weight his gear to make upward progress, he just climbed the rock with his hands and feet. If he fell, his gear and rope (held by his partner) would catch him.

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Local climbing legend Roger Briggs was another pioneer of free climbing. As a 15-year-old climbing prodigy, Briggs made several hard free ascents in Eldorado even before Erickson arrived. But it was Erickson who encouraged Briggs to climb clean. Briggs explained to me last week, "People who didn't use pitons don't quite understand how brutal that really was. We were smashing the rock. It was horrible."

Roger Briggs on the first free ascent of Death and Transfiguration (5.11b) in the Flatirons in 1972. Briggs cites this route as his "transformative moment" from aid climber to free climber. He kept climbing until he had freed the entire route. He never carried a hammer and pitons again. (Photo by Dudley Chelton)

Erickson's most famous local achievement was his 1971 first free ascent of The Naked Edge in Eldorado with Duncan Ferguson. The repeated use of pitons had already scarred the route, and it became clear that piton use was unsustainable. Soon, Erickson sold all of his pitons. He thought, "It seems a little dangerous, but what the hell. I guess I'll stop using pitons." For Erickson, climbing was no longer about getting to the top, it was how you climbed that mattered.

He never carried a hammer again.

"People thought I was crazy," said Erickson. But within a few years, the free and clean movement that began in Boulder had quickly spread throughout the entire country.

Chris Weidner
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PAUL AIKEN
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As if Erickson passed the torch, Briggs took free and clean one step further. After years of important first ascents in Eldorado such as Diving Board (5.11b, with Erickson), Jules Verne (5.11b) and Scary Canary (5,12b), Briggs introduced these ethics to the Diamond of Longs Peak, a 1,000-foot vertical wall at 13,000 feet.

Briggs first climbed the Diamond as a 16-year-old in 1967. He was then the youngest person to climb the wall. But his real contribution to the Diamond began in 1976 with the first free ascent of Yellow Wall (5.11b R). Over the next 25 years, Briggs added seven more major free ascents to the Diamond, including its five hardest routes, all rated 5.12.

Over a 40-year period, Briggs, now 61, climbed the Diamond 104 times -- way more than anyone else. "I've gone from being the young phenom ... to now (laughs). People think, 'God you're so old, how can you still be climbing?!'"

Today, Briggs is chairman of the Boulder Climbing Community, which he founded two years ago. The goals of the BCC -- stewardship and sustainability -- are an extension of the free and clean ethic that defined both Erickson's climbing career and his own. Trail building and maintenance are the BCC's top priorities. Especially in Boulder Canyon, where off-trail hiking leaves marks on the land reminiscent of the piton damage in the 1960s.

For their climbing achievements and environmental efforts, Erickson and Briggs will be inducted into the Boulder Sports Hall of Fame this Saturday evening.

"Trail building doesn't seem like anything really deep," said Briggs. "But it's how we're going to get people out there in a sustainable way -- enjoying nature rather than beating it up."

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